What to do if your mobile is stolen or lost: the definitive checklist

It is true that losing your smartphone is not cool and that it is stolen much less! However, it is also true that today there are tools to protect at least our data and its integrity and the operation of the device itself, which you can turn into a beautiful paperweight without touching it and even while it is turned off.

If you are already here because you have lost your mobile, surely reading this will have reassured you. It is that taking into account the amount of personal data and photos that we carry on our smartphone, including banking services, payment cards, and access to all our accounts on the Internet; The truth is that losing or having your phone stolen is probably one of the worst things that can happen to you today.

Do you want to know how you should prepare in case you lose your smartphone one day? Or do you need to know what to do if you have already lost it?

In any case, technology has advanced, almost any smartphone contains a huge collection of sensors and connectivity chips, so there are ways to track it, lock it remotely, and even make it unusable so that no one can use it if it is found and does not return it, or if it has been stolen from us.

How to heal in health, so you can “prepare” to lose your mobile

Surely it will seem a bit strange, almost a joke, that we start by preparing to lose the mobile, but as we have said, the data and services we use on it are almost more important than the device itself.

So, here are the essential tips to protect our data even if one day we run out of phones:

• Use a strong password. – It indeed seems a truism, but many users do not use passwords for convenience. And we are not referring to the pattern or the PIN, which are practically useless, but to a secure password or biometric authentication.
• Leave some clue about yourself .- on Android, there are ways to leave useful information so that they can return your smartphone if someone finds it. In the Security settings, you can cover the Owner Information menu, but you can also leave a message with data on the lock screen.
• Install Android Device Manager.- There are indeed more apps to locate your smartphone or lock it remotely, but Android Device Manager is Google’s native app for this task and has all the basic and necessary tools to feel more secure with your smartphone.

• Use an advanced VPN service.- If we are talking about protecting our data, using an advanced VPN service like NordVPN will offer us the best security when browsing the Internet, encrypting all our communications behind a quality, reliable and reliable virtual private network. With servers in more than 60 countries.

A service that also allows us to hide when browsing from public WiFi networks protects our personal and commercial data and masks our location so that we can access locally or regionally restricted content such as sports broadcasts or events.

You can find all the information about NordVPN on its official website; installing it is as simple as going to Google Play to search for the app and download it, and the prices of the service are more than attractive given its professional possibilities:

• NordVPN – Fast and Secure VPN (Free) | Google play
• More insights on this particular NordVPN review

What to do if your smartphone is lost or stolen

But if you have already protected your smartphone -or not- but have also lost it, surely you will also want to know what you should do to try to recover it. It will not be easy, but at least, here are the essential tips for doing everything in your power:

• Call your phone or send a message.- It is the simplest and sometimes the most useful. If it is in your house, you will hear it ring or vibrate, and if you have lost it and some Good Samaritan has it, you will be able to recover it. You can also use the security app to leave a message if no one answers you.
• Use the app you have to locate the phone. – this functionality that we recommended to configure above will help you locate it on a map if it is turned on, or it will show the last known location.

• Go to the police if you can’t – if these simple steps don’t work, go to the police and report the loss or theft. You will avoid fraudulent charges, and the security forces will investigate it for their part. And also, with the complaint, you will be able to go to your operator to block your SIM and get a duplicate.
• Lock your device .- with the same location app; you can block the terminal and prevent access to your data. Here time is money, so hurry up to decide what to do … Also, don’t worry because you can also make a copy of security, and if you wish, it is even possible to eliminate all traces of the memory to stay calmer.
• If you have no hope, block it by IMEI .- in the latter case, and if you have already given it up for the loss, your operator can turn it into an ornament blocking it by IMEI. This is irreversible, so you should be the last option.

And last but not least, remember that once you have lost a device as important as your smartphone, you must change all your passwords to avoid problems. It is not strictly necessary since probably the thief or whoever has found the terminal will not have been able to use it, not at least if you have been quick with the locks, but it is always better to be safe than sorry.